I saw a commercial today that reminded me of my IMediaConnection Crash column. This one had a car speeding down a country dirt road towards a railroad crossing while a freight train is moving mightily along. The camera goes back and forth. The car and train are getting closer and closer and closer. They're about to hit. They're gonna hit!Then the commercial breaks to what they're really trying to show you. One person sitting next to me said, "Uh, yeah...guess I'm never buying [that product]." Another person offered, "Are they attempting to tell you that [this product] is as exciting as getting hit by a train? Or that you're as stupid as the morons who challenge freight trains at railroad crossings if you buy [that product]?"
I'm amazed at some of the things that marketers think makes good copy. I know nobody sitting at the table was in that product's market, but come on. When I saw the ad a second time there was no interest except in changing the channel. This is debranding at its best. I've written on debranding in several places, so you can pick what you like from this list:
- NextStage Global Case Study - User Migration and Site Redesign
- NextStage Global Opinion Paper - Learning to Listen, Learning to See
- NextStage Evolution Research Paper - Use of Eye Images as Navigation and Action Cues on WebSites (for pay paper)
- IMediaConnection column - ReDesign Timing
- IMediaConnection column - When Advertisements Crash
» Role Models in Advertising - Beer Cans on the Woodland Path from BizMediaScience
What are marketing role models modeling for us? [Read More]
Tracked on: December 3, 2006 4:39 PM | Permalink to Trackback